W3: Tech and Connect Follow Up

I would consider week 3 challenge a success. It was not very glamorous or exciting, but productive nonetheless. This week I spent alot of time getting to know the mechanics of the tools that I use everyday; much of this time spent on updating my preferences, information and organizing. I found that with just some extra work this week to get my “social media and technology” tools in order, it will save me much more time in the future with the end goal to increase productivity.

The steps I took to get organized:

Achieved Inbox Zero: I deleted and unsubscribed to unnecessary emails, acted/replied on important emails, created a folder system to encourage action on items (To Read, Important, To Do, To Save) as well as interests and lifestyle (Recipes, Articles, Personal, Events). I am now at a place to move forward with a system that saves time and motivates me to act much sooner, rather building up.

Google Reader Zero: I love Google Reader, but lately have been falling behind on articles. I sifted through my past documents, “starred” those that needed another glance and created folders to organize and filter my various intersts (Higher Education, Style/Art, Career, Service, Leadership, Green/Eco). Instead of sifting through and becoming overwheled, it’s much easier to read through each morning.

Twitter Flitter: Awesome tool – Flitter calculated that I had 208 contacts that did not follow me back, were inactive or were not irrelevant to my interests – highly recommend if you need to clean out your feed and focus on contacts and content that matter.

Hootsuite: A social media dashboard that I already used for twitter, but I also created streams for facebook and LinkedIn. This definetly saves time for when I just want to glance at my various SM feeds.

The second part of this challenge was to move my social networking to the next level. I succeeded in attending my first Social Media Club DC meeting, as well as signing up for my first TweetUp, upcoming in March. Additionally, I have moved to meet with/work with three different people with whom I have connected with on social media for career and personal interests. This encouragement has me excited to expand my network and build relationships/opportunities with some great people. This simple step has shifted my focus from “think” to “act”.

The challenge to tech and connect has lead me to wonder – why haven’t I done this already? Like the challenges from the first two weeks, I found that pushing myself to get over my own hangups, excuses and reservations has led to some really great conversations, time savers and development of positive habits. Sure, it is certainly not excited to delete emails and unsubscribe from 35 email communications – but it forced me to prioritize, organize and communicate – and even more importantly, act!